End of the Year

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Well, the only excuse I can give is the truth: I've been busy! My daughter and two granddaughters have moved back in. I enjoy have the little ones so close by and love them so much, but it is a lot of work and a big change. I don't have a lot of the quite time I had before to just sit at the computer, upload pics and post cute stories. I barely find time to stitch.
I also had a cold that lasted several days. Last weekend I went to Cedar Lakes in Ripley and took some great surface embroidery classes. The weather wasn't too bad but after the first night we woke up to snow and some car windows that were frozen shut. I also woke up that morning with a slight sore throat, but the chai that Jill brought was nice and warm and extremely soothing. That night, however, it broke out into a full-blown sinus, head cold. Sunday morning Becky went to the store for me and I took some liquid cold medicine. It took the edge off but I really felt horrible the rest of the day.
Sunday afternoon I left Ripley and was on my way to visit my sister, Brenda, in Dunbar. I was just about to her exit and she cancelled on me. Not sure why but I just headed on home. I got a little more than half-way there and the engine in my car died. We got it towed home and after having the mechanics look at it realized the whole engine needs to be replaced. Not a good thing to happen any time, but even worse just before the holidays. Guess it will be a light Christmas.
This weekend we had our TANA Christmas party on Saturday. It was totally amazing! The food was Italian and delicious. I think I got the best gift of the whole exchange. It was made by Rachel Craycraft. It was a beautiful basket and she had stitched a wonderful oval flower arrangement on it. Inside was a hardanger needlecase and an embroidered scissor case. Absolutely wonderful! I got my picture taken on Santa's lap which hasn't happened since I was just a toddler. The table favors Becky and Rick made were great, too.
After that party, I had to go to my niece's 17th birthday party. Pizza and cake make a great party as well.
Today, we went to church and listened to a guest speaker, Willard Willis. He writes books as well and told us today that he has been preaching and traveling for over 50 years. He does a great sermon. Afterwards we had a wondeful dinner. We are baptists so you'd have to just expect great food would be involved.
So, this evening we finally put up the tree and decorated. Emma just went to bed so Phoebe, Alyssa and I are going to attempt to make an edible gingerbread cake. It will surely not be as lovely as the one Marsha brought to the TANA party, but we will have fun nonetheless.
Sorry there aren't any photos with this post but I do have a lot of them to add and hope to do that soon.